Magazine Review: The Dark Side – Issue 154

The Dark Side continues to provide excellent value for money, and while it’s a UK magazine, it’s worth tracking down a copy no matter where you are on the world. The magazine has a definite skew towards the classic and retro end of the horror genre, but their coverage of the current crop of fright flicks is just as strong as their retro features.

Let’s take a look at some of the excellent material on offer in issue 154. The cover feature, on the tongue-in-cheek masterpiece/disaster Dracula AD 72, is informative and entertaining while being just a little bit frustrating. Not because of the subject matter, but because of all of the mayhem that went into making the film itself. The piece is exhaustively researched and written with obvious appreciation for one of Hammer’s lesser (and somewhat more desperate) entries into the Dracula mythos.

Another high point is the lengthy and engrossing Godzilla feature, which looks at the franchise as a whole and also offers a run-down of the films themselves, be they legendary or terrible (depending on the era). An interview with the sultry Francoise Pascal is going to get classic genre fans’ pulses racing, but those same people will also be disarmed by her honesty. A refreshingly frank interview.

The magazine’s series of pieces on the genre work of the late Oliver Reed continues with his tragic downfall, which perfectly chronicles his self-destructive tendencies and how they effected his work. For fans of asian cinema there are also interviews with legends such as Chow Yun Fat, Tsui Hark and Sammo Hung.

New horror movies are covered well in the regular lengthy reviews section, featuring comprehensive reviews of releases such as Lords of Salem, Dead Souls, Curandero, Handgun, the Slice & Dice documentary and more. There are also great reviews of new releases of classic titles, with the new edition of Cronenberg’s unsettling The Brood coming across as particularly promising.

As ever, the quality of the magazine is extremely high, but it continues to be more for fans of classic genre cinema than the new breed. However, it could be argued that the new breed isn’t producing content which matches the classics, rather than the magazine actively avoiding them. A brilliant read once again. Oh yeah, and make sure you check out their FREE digital magazine (containing different material to the print magazine) at their site too!

About Andrew Hawnt

As well as Horrornews.net, Andrew writes for the UK's POWERPLAY ROCK AND METAL MAGAZINE and film geek site WEEKLY GEEK SPEAK. He is the author of books such as VHS ATE MY BRAIN, BAGGED AND BOARDED: LIFE ON PLANET GEEK, the novels A STOLEN FATE, ROGUE SOUL and several other titles. Andrew lives in Nottingham, UK. You can find him on Twitter as @andrewhawnt